


London Calling

by plsnskanks (orphan_account)



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: I really, edds a werewolf, fucking spooky au is back because FUCK im ready for halloween, i ran away with the world building im sorry, matts a vamp, neighbors and girls are witches, pats a harpy, tams a seer, todds a demon, toms a ghost, tords a zombie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-07-08 00:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15919044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/plsnskanks
Summary: Edd forgets halloween is on a full moon and the guys have to track him down with some help from the spoopy underworld





	1. Chapter 1

“So, what do you say? I’m reanimated, you’re half dead,” Tord waggles his eyebrows at the vampire sitting on a gravestone.

Matt gives him an unamused look, “Worm meat isn’t my particular taste. I’ve tried before, congealed blood? Not very palatable.” Matt crinkles his nose at the memory. “Besides do you even still… have it?”

“Want to come over and check?” Tord says.

“I am,” Tom says rising out of his grave, “literally stuck here, so if you two are going to do that, at least do it in a mausoleum where I don’t have to see it.”

Matt looks at him irritated, “We aren’t going to have sex, let alone have sex in a graveyard on Halloween, how cliché can you get.”

“Tough luck,” Tom says, shooting Tord a smug grin. 

Tord leans on a rather tall gravestone. “It’s fine, I’ll just wear my hoodie up and go to a public library to look at hentai in the after hours. I know Laurel, you know her? Nice witch, leaves the side door open for me.”

“Really?” Tom said cocking an eyebrow.

“Hey, ghouls got to look after each other right? Not all of us can pass as a non-rotting sack of flesh. Or possess one,” Tord looks at Tom pointedly. “Speaking of which, why don’t you possess some babe and come back over-.”

“First of all, no. Second, it’s a lot of work and a miracle if I can hold onto them for the night.”

“Aww come on, it would be fun to wreak some havoc.”

“Where’s Edd?” Matt said, looking bored at the entire situation.

Tom looks at the looming clock tower in the distance, “Yeah he is pretty late, it’s a quarter to and the guy is- it’s a full moon.” The thought hits him midsentence and the three of them stiffen up.

“You don’t think…” Matt starts.

“He lost track of the lunar cycle again,” Tom groaned raising a translucent hand to his face in exasperation.

“Oh come on, Edd’s normally got a handle on that kind of thing there’s no way,” Tord starts.

“There is certainly a way,” A voice sounds from behind them. Three figures on brooms land behind them each dressed in black save the color of the inside of their capes and the band around their hats.

“Eduardo,” Tom regards him coolly, “and coven.” Mark and Jon nod respectively. No one really talked much about how Eduardo had gotten the boot from Laurel’s coven after an unknown dispute. Everyone just knew talking about it was more than likely to get you some unfortunate ailment for the next lunar cycle.

“So as much as I would love to stay out of your dingy graveyard and never talk to any of you losers again, we have a problem,” Eduardo said, scuffing the ground with his shoe.

“And that would be?” Tom says even though they all know the answer.

“Your mutt is running rogue around downtown London and while he has the benefit of it being Halloween on his side, murdering someone is definitely going to get him in big trouble by the City Watch and ruin things for the rest of us.”

“Shit,” Tord said. Matt looked between everyone worriedly.

“So what are we going to do?” He asked, wringing his hands nervously. Tom merely stared at the witches intently as he floated softly above his tombstone.

“Well, the way I sees it, the best thing is if we get this all cleaned up as fast as possible, especially before any vampires catch wind because you know they’ll kill him like that.” Eduardo snaps his fingers.

They knew. London virtually belonged to the werewolves and had for centuries but there were always a few bats in the belfry waiting for an excuse to take out a blood feud as old as the city itself. Edd was on good terms with most of the locals, but being a world city and all left things up to dangerous chance, especially on Halloween, when the city was inundated with tourists of the supernatural kind.

“So, you going to give us a ride…?” Tord asked motioning to the waiting brooms. He had hoped to keep himself firmly grounded this evening but looks like not.

“Bat boy and the ghoul can fly, yeah? So sure, Jon can give you a lift,” Eduardo said jerking his thumb to the youngest witch who looked up startled.

“M-me?” Jon said nervously. He was the smallest of the three witches by far and his hat had an endearing little crook to the tip, like it had been dropped quite a few times and was just stuck that way now.

“Yeah you, you need practice riding double anyway,” Eduardo said tiredly.

Matt peeked around Eduardo to catch Mark’s line of sight. He smiled and Matt smiled back. He didn’t exactly mind the guy, last he checked his illusion spells were top notch and Matt kind of loved the aesthetic and dramatic flair the witch had when casting spells. He saw Eduardo and his coven practicing quiet a bit in some of the deeper recesses of the graveyard or in the mausoleums. They had woken him up a time or two.

“Looking absolutely pallid tonight,” Mark purred.

“Black is certainly your color,” Matt beamed back.

Tom sighed loudly in annoyance and the lovefest drew to a close as Eduardo straightened himself up and started to speak.

“Alright then, it’s settled, everyone follow my lead,” Eduardo says and then he kicks off into the air, sending himself through the graveyard at a breakneck pace, weaving through tombstones and rocketing up the side of the church bell tower. Mark follows after in a swift gracefully steep curve, Matt allowing himself to dissolve his form in a puff of smoke and trail him.

“Mind if I ride with you?” Tom said, looking at Tord with dry amusement.

“You know how I feel about vertigo, be my guest,” Tord says closing his eyes and holding his arms out, clearing his mind so as to make things easier, and with that Tom takes over.

Everyone in the gang lets him have a go at possessing them from time to time. It’s really just a courtesy to let their friend enjoy some of the living world again. From the sharpened visions of Matt, to the overwhelming smells and instincts of Edd, Tom liked to try out bodies from time to time. Tom wiggles Tord’s fingers and smiles.

“Excellent,” He says, grinning at the mottled green digits. He snaps his attention to Jon when he clears his throat softly. He sits patiently bobbing up and down lightly on his broom. 

“Right, sorry,” He says and then jumps onto the broom. Tord’s senses are deadened quite considerably and it is really only a matter of time before they are going to have to find someone to perform a rejuvenation ritual to keep his body from completely falling to pieces, but Tom can feel things nonetheless and he is grateful for it.

Jon takes off at a much less steep angle but follows in the general direction of Eduardo and Mark. They are firmly nestled in the fog belt and it take a bit of ascending before they clear it to be up in the fresh night air, swells of slow moving vapor catching the moonlight, looking for endless miles and miles like a ruffled silk blanket. The shadows of the blanket move and tumble in slow crashes all around them and aside from the dim rumble of wind in their ears it is silent.

Tom loves nights like these, and he wishes his friend weren’t in danger, otherwise he would be able to enjoy it a bit more lightheartedly. To say he liked being alive was an understatement, but being dead has its perks and being free of gravity to a certain extent was definitely one of them.

He enjoys the cool blast of wind on his face and the heat he can feel seeping from Jon’s body as he presses closer and the feeling of his hair blowing out behind him. Tom smiles and enjoys the serene ride. Distantly ahead of him are Eduardo and Mark and a zig zagging little speck he can only assume is Matt.

“Hold on,” Jon says and leans forward hunkering down on his broom. The broom picks up speed and Tom lets out a whoop of excitement, he really can’t contain himself, its been a while since he’s felt this, pardon his language, alive.

They catch up to the others and Matt settles down on Jon’s broom upside down. Tom smiles back at him and Matt flaps a wing at him. Honestly? He can’t blame him, they’re going half way across town and it is certainly a stretch.

“This is about it, get ready for a rough landing, aim for the Thames boys” Eduardo calls and with that they are descending again through the fog. The three witches rifle through their cloaks and all come out with wands that glow brilliantly at the tips in their respective colors. The fog ahead of them parts a little in advance. Shapes start to appear with very short notices and they find themselves weaving through the streets and buildings, around chimneys, over smokestacks, skirting the edge of an occasional church spire, never following a particular street too long lest they be noticed. 

Finally, the break in buildings is not a road but instead the placid and rather smelly surface of the Thames. Eduardo throws up a fist in victory as they lower themselves down to land under a bridge.

Matt flies off and up into the rafters as they land, shifting back and dropping down with the unnerving quietness and sort of feline prowling grace known to his kind. Tom takes a deep breath in and then finds himself expelled out of Tord’s body.

“Wow, that’s a headrush,” Tord said, sucking in a breath as he wobbled on his feet.

“Thanks for letting me take over, give it a moment, the nausea will clear” Tom said as he floated lazily in the air.

“No problem,” Tord said and true to his word, the disorientation clears and Tord finds him as in tune with his senses as a half rotted corpse can be.

“So, how do we do this?” Mark said.

“Well, no need to bother looking normal, it’s the one night of the year anyone looking normal is the freak” Eduardo said. “I say we just comb the streets looking for people screaming about a big hairy guy. Anyone got a better idea?”

No one did. They spend the next half hour turning down street after street, going into alleys and following dark nooks and crannies to see where they let out. Weaving in and out of crowds, parsing everything from crowed squares, to desolate side routes. Just as they reach another dead end and are turning to go Tom hears a whisper.

“Hey, Tom,” the voice says with just the barest hint of a purr behind each syllable.

Tom turns around to see nothing. Well. He sees a dumpster and an alley cat. Wait. Wait a minute.

“How you doing pal, you uh, missing a guy?” she says, tail curling into a gentle question mark shape.

“Kim?” He says looking incredulously at the cat, which is in fact, a black cat with ice blue eyes. He looks over his shoulder and calls to the others.

“Hey, Kim’s over here.”

Eduardo’s mouth turns down in a grimace of distaste, but nonetheless he leads the group over. They crowd around. Kim was Katya’s familiar and also her…. Well her something. Honestly, he didn’t get those two but he liked Laurel a decent bit, so he ended up liking them by proxy.

“So, your boy, Edd, he’s currently by the tower and he not only has had some Van Hellsing looking dude tailing him all night, but also a pack of vampires and I honestly think they are just looking to get him alone and cut him up into dog meat,” Kim said. “Katya’s keeping her eye on him but she’s really worried so she went to Tamara to point her in the general direction of where you guys are and well, here I am.”

“Ah my sister knows about this,” Tom said putting his face in his hands, “of course great oracle Tamara knows.”

“Your sister is a bitch,” Tord snorts.

“And you’re one to talk,” Tom shoots back.

Tord smiles and puts his hands up, “If you’re looking for me to argue, I got news for you. She doesn’t just hail from the flaming depths of hell, she contains them inside her.”

“Hey, shut up,” Eduardo snaps. He turns his attention back to Kim, “So? What else? Is he full dogman yet or what?”

Kim’s eyelids lower in annoyance as she looks to Eduardo, “He is fully shifted, yes, but with the clouds the way they are, he can’t really stay in that form for long, and it is only a matter of time before he gets cornered, unshifted.”

“Great,” Eduardo groans.

“Don’t worry though,” Kim says, tail flicking in enthusiasm. “I’ll lead you there, just follow me!”

With that she leaps off down the alleyway, weaving between strangers’ legs and they turn to run after her. She moves supernaturally fast and to be honest, it is hard for anyone but Tom to keep up with her. He just phases through bodies smiling in dry amusement as people shiver at his passing.

Matt eventually gets fed up with trying to push through body after body and darts down an alley to shift into a bat and flits after them, keeping track of the faint form of Tom as a guide. 

After what feels like ages they find Katya alone in a vacant sector of the city. It is getting close to two now and anyone out at this hour is either drunk or not fully human. Kim arrives at her feet and sits, curling her tail around her and looks up at her, confused.

“I got some Edd’s pals, where is Edd?”

“I lost him,” Katya said looking distressed and running her hand rapidly through her hair, pulling some strands loose from her ponytail to hang in her face. “Laurel went after him but the moon came out and he shifted and-”

Her eyes dart to the building nearest them which has deep claw marks entrenched in it.

“Shit, this is not great,” Kim mutters. Katya bent down to pick her up and hold her in her arms. Kim’s tail immediately curls around Katya’s wrist and she strokes her worriedly as she looks at the group.

“Honestly, I am so sorry, I was trying to keep up with him but he literally clawed a wall and disappeared over a building and by the time I got up on my broom I couldn’t find him,” She put her hand to her forehead and leaned back, groaning in frustration. “God this is such a mess.”

“So what now?” Tom said. “He could be anywhere, who knows if he is even within city limits? Out of the City Watch’s jurisdiction.”

Tord squeezes his eyes shut in frustration, “Let’s hope not because anything that happens out there is considered fair game.”

“Should we just go tell his pack?” Mark said. “At this point we might need a full search party to locate him.”

Tord sucks in air between his teeth, “I don’t know if that would help or hurt at this point, and with all the random vampires in the city we might start shit.”

The group contemplated things in silence. No one wanted to speak or make a hasty decision. Halloween was known to be a tinderbox of tension between spooks and no one wanted to cause the flashpoint for a citywide turf war. A few years back nearly every goblin in the city had been rounded up and thrown in the river after an argument over stolen gold in a bar escalated.

“Hey!” A voice above them called. The crew looked up to see Laurel looking down on them riding on her broom. “Get up, we are going to comb the city.”

Suddenly they see another shape come from above. The spread wings that must be a good ten to twelve feet across signal the end of their night as everyone’s stomach dropped simultaneously.

“Aw crap, the City Watch has got us, we are getting taken in by the watch because your stupid friend-,” Eduardo begins and everyone can tell it is the start of an outright tantrum.

“Hey Tord!” The harpy calls down from the ledge of the building, friendly face smiling down at them.

“Pat?”

“Boy have you guys pissed off the watch tonight. Flying all around on broomsticks, leaving gouges all over the city, we just detained your guy a bit ago.”

“Edd? You have Edd?” Matt calls up eagerly. Honestly. It’s only about noon as far as the night goes but Matt has flown more tonight than he has the past week in total and he could go for a nap.

“Boy do we have him, Paul had to summon Todd for some help and boy do you know, no one on the watch likes that guy. Your guy is cut up but he is doing good otherwise.”

Patryk looks to Laurel, “But uh, if you can ground that. You guys have nearly put a citywide ban on broom travel for the next month. The amount of reports and sightings we have gotten is off the charts and frankly, Bing is about to kill someone, so if you guys can walk home or something while he cools his crusty goblin ass, that would be nice.”

“So… are we going to get our friend back tonight?” Tom asked slowly.

Pat lets out a slow whistle shuffling his winds behind him and tucking them into his sides, “Well, thing about that is… he’s in the Dagmire dungeons, you know, the mermaid haunt a little upstream from the tower bridge.”

Tord groans, “No, no, no.”

“Yeaaah, the one ran by your sister,” Pat said. “See that’s the thing. She’s in a shit mood right now so maybe if you all were to head down there and ask, you could get him out but uh, as far as the watch goes? She’s had enough of me dragging punch drunk vampires, and half shifted werewolves into the cool down tank and I think she’d go rabid at the sight of me at this point.”

Patryk’s wings flutter a bit nervously, “So yeah. Anyways, guys I got to go, still have to make sure the rest of the town is getting to bed alright.”

They wave goodbye and Patryk takes off and within a few moments disappears into the fog.

“Well, are we going to see this all the way through, or are we going to scoop him up in the morning,” Tom says.

“As if, even if it means dealing with Tori at this hour, I am not leaving Edd in the tank overnight, there’s probably like twenty vampires in there getting ready to jump him,” Tord says, shrugging his shoulders in defeat.

“Alright then. Guess we are walking to the tower,” Laurel sighs. “Come on.”

Kim and Laurel start chatting almost immediately, notably keeping Matt, Tom and Tord between Eduardo and his coven, who walk on in silence. Matt drives over to Mark and quickly they start discussing the ins and outs of passing in the mortal world and the subtle nuances of appearance.

Tom just floats along casually by Tord’s side as he lags behind the pack. Recently his limp has gotten more and more pronounced and while he can walk and run at a normal pace, he is always at the risk of tearing muscles that are already in the state of decay and tonight has definitely pushed him a bit closer to that edge.

“So what is your sister exactly, besides a bitch,” Tom says. “I never got what qualified her as a spook, I thought you were human when you died and so was the rest of your clan.”

Tord shrugs, “Nah, She’s a fire elemental, we both are, or well I was. Lost my powers when I died.”

“Sorry,” Tom said.

“It happens, I mean, I’m not one to complain, at least I get a body, no offense. What happened with you?”

“Unlucky encounter with a vampire. Was fully human originally. Tamara just always had her seer abilities, you know how those things go, tends to be a matriarchal sort of deal. Anyways, she saw it coming all of a night before, tried to tell me, I didn’t listen, she knew I wouldn’t and had a seal lined up to bind me here to the mortal realm,” Tom said wiggling his fingers ominously before cracking into a lax smile.

“No shit? What’s the seal, how do you know it’s safe?”

“Well,” Tom said smiling grimly, “My twin always said, we were destined to have the same lifespan, so the seal is a tattoo and it will break as soon as her body breaks down enough.”

“Damn Thompson, I take back anything bad I’ve ever said about your sister. That’s pretty brazen,” Tord said giving a small laugh of wonder following his statement. “I’m sure Tori would have just left me to rot. Or went and got me pardoned from hell herself.”

Tom smiled, “She’s something alright.”

They arrive at the river. Fog is idling gentle over the surface and the bank is seemingly empty and devoid of life.

“I got this,” Laurel digs in her pocked and withdraws a gold coin. She tosses it into the river and within a few moments a boat surfaces out of the water surrounded by several pale faces. A particularly angelic blond one turns to them with a broad grin.

“Yuu, looking brilliant as ever,” Laurel greets.

“Hey! Fancy seeing you here this time of night, we are awful busy this evening, what with some asshats shutting down brooms for a while. Anyways, where to?”

“Dagmire,” Laurel says.

Yuu winces, “You sure about that? It’s a hell of a mess down that way. Tori nearly set my boat on fire for bringing in a load of prisoners for the watch.”

“Yeah and if you wait around I’ll offer double fare for the way back, we are going to bail someone out,” Laurel looks back at Tord.

“Hopefully.”

Yuu squints at Tord a minute, “Alright but if his sister sets my boat on fire, he’s paying for it.”

“Provided she doesn’t kill us in the process, deal,” Tord says with a lopsided smile.

They all load in the boat and it sets off across the river at a jaunty pace. Around them a few remaining lights linger but for the most part, besides the occasional ominous figure fading in and out of the fog, the streets are vacant. The night, it seems, is finally cooling down.

They arrive at the mouth of the dungeon, it is disguised as a sewer entrance but in reality it heads to a dead end and what looks like a very solid wall is actually the opening to the Dagmire Prison for the Supernatually Gifted. Or as it is just commonly called the Dag or Dagger.

“Thanks again Yuu, hold up a bit for us please,” Laurel says, flipping him another coin.

He gives her a thumbs up and everyone else disembarks.

The sewer entrance smells the part even if it is fake, and the grate is real too. Laurel feels for a hidden alcove in the rim and presses in and sure enough, the grate pops loose and they all go in the dank opening.

They enter the prison without trouble but as soon as they clear the tunnel in they are greeted with a tiny flit of a pixie. She has a blond tuft of hair and her head is shaved close on either side. She looks at them with an unamused glare. Everyone holds up immediately. While tiny and cute looking pixies are some of the worst to tangle with and her needle sharp teeth remind them of that point nicely.

“Business?”

“Tori on duty tonight?” Laurel asks in a casual tone.

“Business?” She states again, nothing in her expression changing or giving way.

“My sister forgot her lunch and we are bringing it to her,” Tord said, stepping to the front of their crowd.  
The pixie looks him over a bit.

“Come on, she looks like me but her rot is on the inside,” Tord says. Someone behind him snorts and Laurel rolls her eyes in annoyance. 

With a soft little “oh” Katya starts rifling through her bag and pulls out what looks like a shriveled toe.

“Look I picked this around Stonehenge on a full moon, can’t exactly say what it is but I know-.”

The pixie is grabbing it out of her hands and turning it over with interest, expression finally changing to something approximating amusement.

“You pick it last cycle?”

Katya nods. 

“Alright lets go,” the pixie says turning to lead down the rest of the tunnel, a soft orange light trailing after her as she leads them. The shriveled root or mushroom or whatever tucked firmly in her belt.

They step into what looks like a honeycomb with the way the holes are arranged in the walls of the cylindrical room. All around jeers and should and rhythmic clicking sound off as spooks of all sorts peer down at them. It really is a full crowd tonight. Perched in the very center, seemingly immune to the din and reading a lightly smoking book, is Tori. When she looks up and sees them she rises, a few embers falling off her as she does.

“What,” She says, looking through everyone at her brother.

“Edd.”

Tori folds her arms and cocks her hips, “Yeah, yeah the little scry came down here and payed his bail before he even got here, it’s creepy how she does that.”

“So… you going to give him to us?” Tord said.

“Honestly? No,” Tori said flicking more embers off her shoulder with disinterest.

“Tori we have been all over tonight looking for him and if you-,” Tord started, exhaustion and irritation plain in his voice.

“Relax brainrot, Ell came by and took him home for the night like an hour ago, if you want him go to the Werewolf Haven, it’s on your way back to that dumpy graveyard anyways,” Tori says and Tord is honestly surprised to see behind her mask of annoyance she looks dead tired as well.

The anger saps out of Tord and he shuts his mouth and mentally tosses out whatever insult he was just about to weigh doling out.

“How was he when you saw him?” Tom asks.

Tori looks at him with bland disinterest, “I don’t know, cut up, bruised, maybe a few bitemarks, but by the time Ell came his healing factor took care of most of that. No worse than the majority of the guys coming in here tonight.”

“Alright,” Tord said turning away, “Clearly there is nothing for us here. Thanks Tori, enjoy the rest of your shift.”

“Yeah whatever, stay off your brooms if you don’t want to end up in here, coven,” Tori says, looking pointedly at the five witches before sitting down and pickling up her book again.

“You want to just drop us off at the haven and go on your way?” Tord asks the band of witches as they step back into the boat. Laurel lets Yuu know their destination.

“I mean our nights already shot,” Kim said, “it’s almost three, may as well see things through.”

“Sorry,” Matt says “usually we have a better grip on things but I guess with Halloween we just forgot about the full moon.”

“Well, no one is dead so I’d call the night a success,” Laurel said, leaning back in the boat.

They reach the haven without issue and get off. It is a small building with a few stories and a rather large basement below, where stray werewolves often laid low during full moons or to take shelter from turf wars with vampires. The street level floor was dedicated to being a tavern with nice stain glass windows with imagery of woods and mountains and a cliff with a howling pack of wolves. A wrought iron post stuck out from the side and from it hung a wooded sign with yet another howling wolf encased in a full moon.

The imagery wasn’t subtle and it wasn’t supposed to be. Unlike many havens, they didn’t outright ban vampires or any form of spook, though the lower levels were restricted to solely werewolves. There were just rules and the rules were be polite and don’t pick fights. And those rules were for the safety of the visitors more so than the inhabitants.

Ell was the owner of the place, inherited it from her father, and was known as the matriarch of not only her own haven and pack, but the entire section of the city. She was fair and kind, and her strong friendship with Tori and Matilda only helped her image as someone just but not to be trifled with.

Almost as soon as they enter Ell and Matilda greet them. Tamara is hanging back, sitting cross-legged on the floor with her crystal ball in her lap, and in the center of the room is Edd, passed out, with a few remaining bruises.

“Well, nice to see you all here, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Ell says, offering a lazy smile. Her hair is uncommonly worn loose and hanging about her shoulders, disheveled in appearance indicating she was also running about shifted for part of the night. She brushes back a few strands from her face and moves aside to let them in.

“Just checking our friend isn’t dead,” Tord said. 

“No, he is just cut to pieces like half of my pack. Been running around all night with Tilly and Tam’s help to get all our boys and girls home in one piece,” Ell smiles over her shoulder at Tam who merely holds a thumbs up in reply. Tom phases through him and Ell impatiently to go say hi to his sister.

“You couldn’t have just told me this was all going to happen?” he asked, irritation plain in his features.

Tamara offers him a wry smile, “I could, but chances are you wouldn’t have listened. I figured this would be a much more effective lesson.”

“We got flying banned for the night.”

Apparently not even Tamara saw that one coming, her eyes widen in shock, “You what?”

“We were looking for Edd,” Tom shrugs. “So we ended up teaching the whole town a lesson as well, I guess.”

“So,” Matt looks to his sister. “Any of our guys?”

Matilda sighs, “No some out of towners actually. Our guys are better behaved than that and they know Edd is a friend, even if they don’t like it.”

“They get him good?”

“Yeah, that’s what some of the slower healing wounds are. Jerks licked the wounds because they knew their saliva would slow down the healing process.”

Matt shudders, “And how do they look?”

Matilda grins and the light glints off her canines, “Someone’s going to have to sink them into the Thames tomorrow.”

Matt’s lips quirk.

Matilda seems to notice the witches and greets them, “Oh did all of you join in to help the search?”  
She bows deeply to them, “My friends and I appreciate your help in keeping a protected member of our clan safe.”

“What’s with the formality Tilly? It may have been a while but we’re still friends, eh?” Kim says, with that Laurel and Katya rush forward and give her hugs and the four of them go down in a squealing mess of chattering and catching up. Matilda’s place as the next in line to take over her clan didn’t exactly allow her to get out and visit old friends often.

Everyone mills around and chats and seems in good spirits. Ell brings out drinks and food for everyone and even Eduardo stops looking so sour after getting a bit of food in his stomach.

“Come back tomorrow,” Ell reassures, “He’ll be almost fully healed. I’d love to send him home but until some of the nastier bites heal up it will just set me on edge to have him out of my sight for long.”

By the time they finish up it is beyond late.

“So Eduardo,” Laurel says, acknowledging him for the first time tonight. “What do you say, wanna tempt the City Watch by racing out of the city limits as fast as possible?”

Eduardo looks at her quietly for a moment, “If you think I would turn down the chance to put you in second place, you are dead wrong,” he says, face cracking out into an uncharacteristic grin.

Mark rolled his eyes, “Oh great, they’ve reconciled enough to start up their annoying rivalry.”

But Laurel and Eduardo are already rocketing off.

“Well. We better go if we don’t want to tempt fate,” Mark said getting on his broom. Katya gets on hers and Kim climbs on to sit behind her, tail dangling. Jon is already floating on his, looking half asleep. With that it is just the three of them alone in an empty street.

“I cannot believe we are taking the tube home,” Matt groaned, as they trudge to the underground entrance.

“Oh yes Matt, you have been brought low to the inconveniences of mortals,” Tord says sarcastically.

They buy their tickets, well Tord and Matt do, Tom just phases through the turn style with a cheeky grin. As they are standing on the platform waiting for the next train a cold wind from seemingly nowhere blows through. Besides someone sleeping down on one of the benches, they’re alone at the station.

“You know,” Tom says. “As much as I like this city, I’ll admit there are places I won’t go, and the abandoned stations down here are one of them.”

“Do you really have anything to be afraid of, you’re already dead,” Matt says tiredly.

Tom shrugs, “Some of the dead are much more pleasant to be around than others and it’s less that and more that sometimes I get the feeling there is something else down here.”

They all stare at the dark chasm that is either side of the subway tunnel. A shiver ruffles through the group. Then another, warmer blast of air comes rushing through as a light appears in the distance and soon their train is here.

Half of them knock out on the train, snoring, drooling mess, the lot of them. Everyone jolts awake as the train pulls into their stop and they get off trudging through empty streets to make their way back to their graveyard at last. The birds are out and chirping by the time they reach it which is a telltale sign dawn is not far away.

“All this, just to come home empty handed,” Tom groans.

“Shut up,” Tord says with a grin, “you know this was the most fun you’ve had on any Halloween to date.”

Tom smiles and raises his hands, “Alright you got me, it was pretty good.”

“If either of you wake me up before tomorrow night, I will bite,” Matt says grimly. They make their way back into the graveyard and Tord heads into his mausoleum to go to bed, Tom possesses a sleeping mouse so he can enjoy the feeling of lethargy and Matt shifts into a bat and finds himself fast asleep under the eve of Tord’s mausoleum.

Fog creeps through the graveyard, unimpeded and in gentle wisps, and at last things settle down to an eerie peace.

By the next night the door of their graveyard creeks open and as the three of them are sitting on their respective graves, chatting to one another, they see Edd heading towards them.

“Edd! How are you friend?” Tord greets, grinning broadly at his friend. Edd’s face still looks a bit sallow and there are still faint marks that appear to be healing still but he smiles as he approaches.

“Couldn’t be better according to the girls,” he says. He sits down heavily on the grass. “Hey Tom, you want to feel what a few fractures and vampire bites feel like? Because I certainly wouldn’t mind the limbo of being possessed right now.”

Tom smiles at his friend, “I think I’ll pass.”

“It wasn’t our clan, for the record,” Matt says, looking his friend over.

“Don’t worry I know that, one of the first things Matilda did was go make sure of that,” Edd said with a lazy grin. The grin dropped as he looked at the three of them seriously.

“I am sorry about things though, I heard you tore apart the city looking for me.”

“More like you tore apart the city and we just followed your trail,” Tord snorted.

“Yeah something like that, I only came to when Todd was ripping a few of the guys who were beating on me. Can’t say it was a pleasure to see him, but not gonna deny he saved my ass. Also the guy who put me in the Dag. Pretty sure Paul would’ve just let me go if it had just been him, werewolf solidarity and all that.”

“Pat told us about Todd. You make it out of the Dag alright?” Tord said.

Edd shrugged, “Say what you want about your sister but she could’ve dumped me in the tank with a bunch of the vamps, but apparently she has a little heart. Put me in an empty cell all by myself until Ell came by, at that point I just passed out in the boat and didn’t wake up until tonight. You know how healing factors go, sap the life out of you.”

“Well shit, at least everyone made it,” Tord said.  
“You hear that Eduardo and Laurel’s covens are merging back together?” Edd said, smiling mischievously.

“What? No way,” Matt said, leaning forward on his tombstone. He was going to seek out Mark at the next possible interval and wring out all the details from him ASAP.

“Yep, the six of them got rounded up flying home and put in the Dag and apparently worked things out while they cooled off overnight.

“This, this has been a hell of a Halloween,” Tom said in wonderment. “Not quiet as bad as the goblin year, but certainly weirder.”

Edd smiled, “Yeah well, hopefully next year is just as crazy and not on a full moon. I owe you guys and the girls a good Halloween next year.”

“Alright then, it’s a date,” Tom said smiling. “Lunar calendar says you’ll be free.”

Edd rubs his hands together smiling wickedly, “Excellent.”


	2. Demonic Roundup

“Edd okay?” Patryk asked Paul who grunted. He was hunkered down on top of the roof they stood on, squinting at the mess below. Patryk leapt off the building and landed gently on the ground, beating his wings a few times to slow his fall. Paul slid off the side of the building and dropped down with a loud “whunk” that sent tremors through the ground and then stood.

“He’ll live. Todd is a few things,” Paul took his cigarette out of his mouth and flicked the embers onto the twitching mess of flesh and bone that had been spooks a few moments ago. “Gentle is not one of them.”

“Yeah, well, a last-ditch option for a reason, right?” Patryk said as he nudged one of the still twitching remains with his foot.

“We are going to need a hell of a clean up crew for this one,” Paul sighed as he surveyed the scene. It seemed as if someone had taken a knife laden with jam and smeared the walks and street around them.

“All part of the job,” Patryk said as the extremity he was nudging stilled at last. “So should we start working on that salt ring to section him off or what?”

Paul took a long drag from his cigarette and then exhaled a puff of smoke “Yeah, it’s probably about time to be sending him back to hell. First let’s get this cleaned up the best we can.”

Chucking whatever body parts were intact enough to be collected into the Thames was pretty common practice for the city watch. You got your hands dirty inevitably working in this part of town, especially on the supernatural holidays when spooks and fights were a plenty. As Patryk is chucking a spare arm into the river a golden head pops up out of the murky depths.

“Oi feathers, can you and your lot go one Halloween without having a burial at sea in my damn stretch of the river?” Yuu and his ilk are up squinting at Patryk in irritation. Patryk grabs the other arm he had and slings it across his shoulders looking at Yuu disinterestedly.

“City watch has license for dumping anywhere in this vicinity, scales,” Pat says smugly as Yuu’s eyes narrow in irritation at the nickname.

“I hauled your load up to the Dag and nearly got set afire for it so if you want to find yourself banned off mermaid favors worldwide, keep talking pal.”

“Aww Yuu, what’s the matter, thought you guys liked to eat this stuff?” Patryk said dangling the arm out for Yuu to get a better look. Yuu crinkled his nose in disgust.

“If it isn’t human it doesn’t sit well, all you’ve been throwing in all night is vampire and that stuff is barely a step above local cooking,” Yuu snorts as he flicks his tail impatiently, splashing Patryk a minute bit as he does so. Pat slings the arm back over his shoulder and shrugs.

“Bear with it, alright? We’re short on time and actually I got to be getting back to Paul, we have to go round up Todd. I’ll have the grunts do disposal anywhere but your neck after tonight,” Patryk says and then tosses his other arm into the river along with the rest of his haul. The mermaids sink back into the water without further comment but Patryk can feel the heat of their glares on his back as he takes off.

The rest of their cursory attempt at cleaning up goes without comment. There’s still flecks of blood and bits of spook ingrained into the grout of the walls, so much so that any werewolf with half a nose on him would immediately know what went down there, but it’s the best they have by themselves. The pixies or someone on the more magical side would spruce things up later.

“Right,” says Paul, coming up to Patryk with several loads of salt on his shoulders. “I assume you are doing this one at a time?”

“Haven’t got your muscles to go along with these wings so afraid so,” Patryk smiled as he spread his wings and caught one of the salt bags that Paul hefted towards him without further comment. “Look, keep him in the quad of those houses up the street a few blocks from us and I’ll draw the circle on their roofs.”

“Alright, he is heading that way now so I’ll get on that,” Paul said, already turning to go.

“Best of luck, don’t let him kill you,” Pat said to his partner’s retreating back. Paul grunts in response.

“Right then,” Pat says to himself. He flicks out at the salt bag and slices it open and then grabs the end of it and takes off. He easily passes Paul and then with another minute of soft coasting he passes Todd as he is smashing his way through what looks like a medley of vamps and wolves. Not good but at least not human.

He starts to pour his sack onto the roof of the quad watching as a little white trail forms over the shingles. He gets about half done when he runs out of salt. At this time Paul has about caught up to Todd and Patryk realizes he should hurry if he doesn’t want his partner pulped before the end of the night. Patryk tucks in his wings and shoots through the air, only opening his wings again when he is so close to the roofs that he is in danger of skimming chimneys. The fog dampens his clothes but Patryk can't find himself minding too much. He loves night flying, the rush, the cold, something about it just makes him feel alive.

He gets back to where the forlorn salt bags lay, slices one again, and takes off with it. By the time he is back Paul is goading Todd on, shouting indiscriminate things at him merely to get his attention on him and away from the other spooks, those of which who can still walk or limp, scramble away as Todd’s attention is distracted. It seems to work as Todd lumbers toward Paul. Patryk has finished the circle or almost, he will hold off on pouring the last bit until Paul actually gets Todd into the quad.

There seems to be a delay in that moment as Todd rushes Paul, seizes him before he can dodge out of the way, and hurls him through the entry way. Paul’s body bounces off the ground not unlike a skipping stone, tumbling and scraping its way through the quad in several bounds until he hits a wall where Paul lays in a messy heap. With a groan he is up on his feet. His arms is bent at an angle indicating it is probably no longer in it’s socket and a whole side of Paul looks like it is ready to turn purple in a few minutes.

“Get him Paul, we’ll call back up if you broke something,” Patryk said, knowing full well Paul was in need of a healer and a full night’s sleep at the very least. They had to seal Todd off now that they had the chance. Paul gives him a shaky thumbs up before he starts to bellow as best as he can at the demon. Patryk hears a roar from downstairs and feels the building underneath him shake as he pours the last bit of salt to finish the ring.

He then hears an ungodly screech from below and a cry of surprise from Paul.

“Paul? You alright? Need me to get the holy water?” Pat calls down as he hears nothing but silence from down below.

“Fine. Situation’s all clear now, you’d better come see this,” Paul returns weakly and Pat finds a little flicker of relief at the fact he won’t be filing papers for a new partner this evening. He jumps down and turns to the entryway of the quad. 

In front of them, in a twitching mass of ichor and gore, smelling overwhelmingly of sulfur is half of their target for the night. The other half is in ashes.

“What happened?” Patryk says as he stares at the mass dumbfounded.

“You happened,” Paul said, offering Patryk one of his rare smiles. His lip is split and he might have chipped a tooth, but it’s endearing nonetheless. “Must’ve closed the salt circle right as he was going through the entryway and, well….” Paul gestured to the mess in front of them.

“He is not going to be happy the next time we have to summon him.”

“He is a demon,” Paul said as he flicked his cigarette butt into the ashes. “What else is new.”

“Well should we let Bing know all this,” Patryk gestures widely around him. “Needs to be cleaned up.”

“I need a sit,” Paul said and then all but tumbles to the ground in a wheezing mass of limbs. 

Patryk rushes over to him, “Hey, you alright?”

“I am pretty sure every one of my ribs is busted,” Paul said. “And I feel like one of my lungs isn’t in commission.”

A soft tap, tap of footsteps sounds behind them. Patryk turns to see none other than Tamara, standing looking small and frail and dainty next to the heaping mass of dead and decaying demon. The ichor stains her shoes and as she walks it leaves little size six footprints behind her. She is wearing a blue cloak and appears to be holding something under it.

“Hey Tam, bit late and unsafe for you to be out,” Patryk greets her as he eyes her cloak. 

“Got Edd from the Dag a bit ago, knew you released Todd to help him, so I figured I would stop by with a small thank you,” Tamara says and her voice is calm and level as she says so. She seems completely unperturbed by the corpse next to her or the heaving man in front of her. Instead she draws closer and takes out a fair-sized wooden box from under her cloak and kneels down next to Paul, placing it next to her on the ground. 

“Didn’t know you were a healer,” Patryk comments as she starts rifling through the box.

“I’m not, some of my kin were though, and I can’t do much for Paul that your med staff can’t do far better. But I can ease the pain,” Tamara seems to find what she is looking for and she offers a handful of something green and leafy looking to Paul and says, “Chew on this, it will help.”

Paul takes it from her and does as she asks and the tension and grotesque color in his face eases a bit as his body relaxes onto the ground. Tamara watches him for a minute and then seemingly satisfied, allows herself a soft smile. With that Tamara is packing up her things and leaves with one last, “Thanks again” cast over her shoulder.

“Her and her brother are weird ones,” Patryk says after she is gone.

“Shut up,” Paul grunts. 

Patryk shrugs. “Alright big guy.” They sit in silence. Patryk watches as Paul’s rasping pants turn to soft wheezes and then to occasionally hiccupping breaths and he becomes aware than the man next to him is asleep in the middle of nowhere in London. Patryk is half dozing himself when about a half dozen figures drop into the quad.

“What in the hell happened here?” Bing snarls as he surveys the mess. “A load of dead spooks and what even is this,” Bing jabs his mottled green finger at the demon half.

“Sent Todd back to hell while trying to escape casualties, sir,” Patryk says, tacking on the last word as an afterthought. Bing liked formalities and Patryk liked not getting yelled at for insubordination or lip or whatever Bing liked to peg him for.

“Seems like you cleared all of half of that,” Bing sneers. Patryk imagines taking Bing up, holding him by his two arms, flying as high as he can before it gets too hard to breathe and then accidentally dropping him. He thinks about this and then smiles a bit too toothily at Bing.

“Yes, sir, looks like it.” 

Bing observes the smile and mutters something under his breath and then jerks his head at two of the surrounding figures. 

“Help get him back to base and fixed up. You’re relieved of duty for the night. The rest of you, with me, time to clean up,” Bing says and Patryk is feeling lighter than air as he helps load his partner into the back of a decrepit looking van everyone termed the city watch ambulance. It only occasionally actually drove through the London streets as the watch found it more expedient to fly under cover of magic.

None of that tonight though, Bing had ordered even the watch to be keeping things as discrete as possible. So that is how they found themselves bumping along the streets making sharp turns and breaking every odd moment because none of them could quite remember how human traffic laws went or how to use a GPS. But bar a few detours they made it home alright as Halloween came to a close and the city seemed to be settling down, even for its guardians.

Patryk is dismissed immediately on arrival but on his insistence he stays with Paul’s unconscious body as their healers set to work. Once Paul is stripped down, he is a canvas painted with every color the human body seemed capable of. Great blooming purple bruises tinged with green at the edges, the dark crimson of drying blood, the light pink of some of the lighter scratches.

Patryk watches all the shades fade back to Paul’s usual tan as deft fingers work over his body. Paul is a big guy and some of the healers tag out before they can finish, but by the wee hours of the morning Paul is looking whole and his arm is once again back in its socket. It’s only next morning when he is being prodded awake by someone that Patryk realizes he spent the entire night in the infirmary.

“Here,” Paul said, pushing a mug into Patryk’s hands.

“Thanks, you didn’t have to,” Patryk mumbled as he took a sip.

“You didn’t have to sleep in that chair all night.”

“Wanted to make sure they fixed you up right. Can’t have myself be down a partner.”

Paul gives him a grin, “You underestimate how hard I am to kill.”

“I’ll say, if that had been me, I don’t think I would have been flying ever again, even with the healers. You’re a tank.”

The two of them are up and out on early patrol again. The city the day after Halloween feels hungover. People trod through the streets like sludge, the Thames is dead quiet with something suspect only reaching the surface for a moment before being swallowed down again, and every spook that Patryk knows by name is absent until far past noon.

Patryk catches sight of a rather beaten looking Edd trudging through the street.

“Hey pal, nice to hear you made it,” Patryk calls. Edd approaches them. He lightly punches Paul on the shoulder and smiles at Pat. 

“Thanks for looking out for me,” he says.

“Keep a better eye on the lunar cycle,” Paul said sternly, before cracking and punching Edd back. “Nice to see Todd didn’t rip you in two.”

“You and me both,” Edd grins back and then he is gone again with a little wave. Patryk and Paul spend most of the day perched on a roof enjoying the momentary peace in the city.

**Author's Note:**

> :P thanks for reading this was a total blast to write, also have some mood music from one of my fav instrumental musicians
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkj3gQrzU0M


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